Content Usage Tracking in Superdistribution

1. A method of tracking the usage of at least one digital content comprising: preparing the content in an encoded format, the content including a unique content ID in a header of the content; distributing the content to a user computer system; receiving at least one usage tracking message from the user computer system in response to the usage of the content by the user computer system, the usage tracking message including an identifier based on the unique content ID and an anonymous copy ID; and verifying the usage tracking message.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one usage tracking message may be used to track how many times the content is played by the user computer system.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the verifying comprises: checking if the usage tracking message is stored in a message database; if the usage tracking message is not stored in the database, retrieving content corresponding to the usage tracking message from a content database; computing a verification value with data in the usage tracking message and data in the retrieved content; and if the verification value indicates that the message is verified, updating the message database for the message.

4. A method comprising: preparing digital content in an encoded format using a provider computer system, the digital content including a unique content ID in a header of the content; distributing the digital content to a user computer system; receiving at least one usage tracking message from the user computer system in response to the usage of the content by the user computer system, the usage tracking message including an identifier based on the unique content ID and an anonymous copy ID; and verifying the usage tracking message.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein one usage tracking message contains the number of the content is played by the user computer system.

6. A system comprising: a provider computer system including a message verification component; a user computer system including a content tracking program; digital content including a content identifier; and wherein the tracking program generates a usage tracking message that reports usage of the digital content by the user computer system and wherein the user computer system sends the usage tracking message to the provider computer system, the usage tracking message including an identifier based on the unique content identifier and an anonymous copy ID.

7. The system according to claim 6 wherein the provider computer system includes a tracking message verifier component that verifies the usage tracking message.

8. The system according to claim 7 further comprising a provider database for storing the usage history for the digital content.

9. A computer program product for tracking the usage of digital content, said computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, said computer readable program code comprising: computer readable program code configured to: prepare digital content in an encoded format using a provider computer system, the digital content including a unique content ID in a header of the content; distribute the digital content to a user computer system; receive at least one usage tracking message from the user computer system in response to the usage of the content by the user computer system, the usage tracking message including an identifier based on the unique content ID and an anonymous copy ID; and verify the usage tracking message.

10. The computer program product according to claim 9 wherein the at least one usage tracking message indicates how many times the content is played by the user computer system.

11. The computer program product according to claim 9 wherein said computer readable program code is further configured to: check if the usage tracking message is stored in a message database; if the usage tracking message is not stored in the database, retrieving content corresponding to the usage tracking message from a content database; computing a verification value with data in the usage tracking message and data in the retrieved content; and if the verification value indicates that the message is verified, updating the message database for the message.

12. A method of tracking the usage of at least one digital content comprising: receiving the content in an encoded format, the content including a unique content ID in a header of the content; generating at least one usage tracking message in response to the usage of the content, the usage tracking message including an identifier based on the unique content ID and an anonymous copy ID; reporting the usage tracking message to a provider computer system.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the generating is a format-independent process.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein one usage tracking message contains the number of the content is played.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the identifier is generated by a method comprising: using the anonymous copy ID and a content ID as seeds to compute a permutation key; using the permutation key to choose a set of blocks from the content; and using the anonymous ID, content ID and the chosen blocks to compute the identifier.